The present invention relates to a processing apparatus for silver halide color photographic photosensitive materials. In particular, the present invention provides a small-sized processing equipment having a reduced number of waste liquid tank.
For obtaining color prints after taking pictures with a general-purpose color negative film, roughly three processing steps, i. e. step of processing the color negative film, printing step and step of processing the color papers, are necessitated. Although centralized photofinishing laboratories for conducting the process are widely distributed, mini-labs for processing photosensitive materials within the shops are recently increasing in number. Such a mini-lab usually possesses two processing machines, i. e. a film-processing machine for conducting a step of processing the color negative film and a printer-processor for continuously conducting the printing step and color paper-processing step. However, the placement of such two processing machines in a small shop has a problem of the space. It is apparently demanded under these circumstances to develop a processing machine necessitating as little space as possible and having a high processing capacity.
The factors in determining the size of the processing machine are supposedly the processing time, processing capacity (size of the processing tank), replenisher tank, waste liquid tank, etc., but it is difficult to drastically change the processing time, in view of the compatibility of the photosensitive materials of photosensitive material makers and, in addition, a considerable processing capacity is required by the users. Therefore, for designing a processing machine as small as possible, it is important to design the replenisher tank and waste liquid tanks to be smaller. The film-processing machine and paper-processing machine each have two waste liquid tanks, and four waste liquid tanks in total, as described in Japanese Patent Unexamined Published Application (hereinafter referred to as "J. P. KOKAI") No. Sho 61-4057, so that the silver-containing waste liquid can be collected separately from the silver-free waste liquid. Namely, since silver can be recovered from the silver-containing waste liquid and reused, the waste liquid is valuable and a money is paid for the liquid depending on the silver content.
However, the price of the silver-containing waste liquid varies depending not only on the total silver content but also on the silver concentration. Namely, when the total amount of silver is fixed, the higher the concentration, the higher the recovery efficiency and the higher the price. Therefore, efforts are made to collect the waste water having a concentration as high as possible. For this reason, the silver-containing waste liquid is collected separately from the silver-free waste liquid.
Usually, since a silver-containing fixing solution and bleach-fixing solution have a high ammonium ion content, it was found that when a waste liquid having a high pH such as that from a color-developer is mixed in a waste liquid from such a silver-containing fixing solution or bleach-fixing solution, ammonia gas is generated to give off an unpleasant smell and the photosensitive material is fogged with the gas. Thus, it has been difficult in the prior art to collect all the waste liquids in only one kind of waste liquid-recovering tank. This problem is particularly serious in a processing machine containing waste liquid tanks therein.
When the waste liquid tanks are filled to capacity, the alarm is given to suggest the necessity of tank exchange or removal of the waste liquid. In this connection, when many waste liquid tanks are used, the cost of the warning system is high and the waste liquid must be frequently removed, which is undesirable in the course of the operation.
A processing apparatus having a film-processing machine and paper-processing machine unified for reducing the size thereof is disclosed in J. P. KOKAI Nos. Sho 64-15741 and Hei 4-141645. Such an idea is indeed effective in making the processing machine smaller. Further, the present invention proposes a technique of using only one waste liquid tank in order to further reduce the size of the processing machine.